Counter light fixtures constitute a substantial segment of the indoor lighting market and generally include lamp fixtures that can be mounted to the underside of wall-mounted cabinets, such as kitchen cabinets, for the purpose of illuminating a counter area under the cabinets. It is desirable that such counter lights have a slim profile for unobtrusive mounting under the cabinets. Many such fixtures are commercially available and typically rely on fluorescent lamp tubes as the light source. Counter lights are generally between one and two inches in height and of varying length depending on the length of the counter surface to be illuminated. Such light fixtures are commonly fastened by screws passing through mounting holes in the housing of the light fixture and driven into the wooden cabinet. Electrical power may be supplied to the fixture either by a power cord which is plugged into an A.C. wall outlet, or by an electrical conduit connected through a “knock-out” opening in the fixture housing.
In recent years, accent lighting has become popular in home decorating. In one form of this accent lighting, strings of low voltage incandescent lights have been mounted beneath kitchen cabinets. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,572 to Weinstock, et al. Other under-cabinet light fixture designs have venting apertures to disperse heat build-up, as well as heat-shield components (in addition to reflectors), and flexible barrier walls that need to be pressed to access wiring. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. D452,340 and 6,565,234 to Skegin. The cost of such fixtures, however, is increased due to the added heat shield component, the vents (and partition engaging holes) permit undesired light leakage through the top of the fixture, and access to wiring is awkward due to the need to press metal walls to disconnect partitions. There is therefore a long-felt, but unsolved need for a cost effective light fixture that eliminates the above-referenced problems encountered with prior art fixtures.